Call of the Scarab Micro-Holiday Guide (January 21st - 23rd)

The first Micro Holiday of Patch 7.1.5 is here! Running from January 21st through 23rd, Call of the Scarab celebrates the opening of the gates of Ahn'Qiraj.

Event Description:

On this date, the Scarab Gong was rung, opening the gates of Ahn'Qiraj. Represent your faction by gathering supplies or by slaying Twilight and Qiraji forces. The winning faction gets to fly their banner next to the Scarab Gong for the rest of the year!

The event will pit the Alliance and Horde against each other to earn the most credit by turning in Commendation Tokens: whoever wins can fly their faction flag in Silithus for a year. This is also a great source of experience for alts in their 50s or higher.

Event History

This event commemorates one of the most memorable times in WoW: the server-wide effort to unlock the gates of Ahn'Qiraj.

One person on each server completed an elaborate questline to bang the gong and open the gates: you can read about all the requirements on the Veteran of the Shifting Sands page. For a brief overview, there were three different shards which were scattered around Azeroth:Red Shard: Complete a speed run of Blackwing Lair (Nefarius's Corruption) after grinding out Brood of Nozdormu reputation (The Path of the Righteous).

The Field Marshals will provide you with more history about the event:

On this day, many years ago, a hero by the name of Kalahad rang the Scarab Gong, opening the gates to Ahn'Qiraj and beginning a war the likes of which Kalimdor had never seen.

Today we celebrate the heroics of those past adventurers by returning to Silithus and walking in their footsteps.

What's more: this is a competition between the Horde and Alliance. Whichever group can earn more credits over the next 24 hours earns the right to fly their flag next to the gong for the rest of the year.

How can I help the war effort?

Disrupt the Twilight's Hammer camps, and strike at their Abyssal High Council!

Slay the mighty silithid colossi that dwell in each of the three large silithid hives.

Gather silithyst, a valuable red spice, for our faction.

Venture into Ahn'Qiraj itself and deal with the qiraji and old god menaces that dwell inside!

Even adventurers that prefer not to fight can participate by donating war supplies, in the form of meat, to our cause.

Why are the items you sell so expensive?

Yes, both the Medallion of Station and the Ring of Lordship are expensive - far too expensive for any one person to purchase on their own.

I suggest you team up with other adventurers and select a champion. Only one medallion or ring is required to summon the high-ranking members of the Abyssal Council - but many heroes will be required to defeat them.

Good luck.

Blizzard has also posted their own history of the event:

Blizzard

On January 23, 2006, a bloody war was triggered by a simple sound: the banging of a gong. No rallying fanfare, no bloodthirsty yell; just an eerie silence. Those long, uneasy seconds of dread. The calm before the storm. Standing shoulder-to-shoulder before the Scarab Wall, no one could have predicted what would happen—an epic ten-hour battle that claimed the lives of thousands of Azeroth’s bravest—or fully comprehended the effect it would have.Action First, Faction SecondThat’s not to say the battle at the gates of Ahn’Qiraj came as a surprise. When the menace of C’Thun turned into an urgent threat, leaders across the world pored over plans and forged unlikely connections as pressure mounted. Both factions knew war was coming and personal glory was a hubris no-one could risk. Any notion that one army could defeat General Rajaxx and his colossal battalion was soon abandoned as fantasy.It was a unique time: scattered armies with varying allegiances were thrown together and faction pride was put aside. Let’s be clear: the battle at Ahn’Qiraj was won purely on the principle “united we stand, divided we fall.”Warmongering vs. Gold HungeringThis uneasy alliance was not without its critics. Some showed their disapproval by shunning the war effort altogether, but others expressed opposition through acts of aggression. Rogue elements on both sides, unwilling to stomach this perceived betrayal of their faction, did not sit idle. Just as neutral auction houses became a tool for factions to share resources, they also became virtual battlegrounds. Crucial resources were picked up for next-to-nothing and sold on for personal gain. As with all wars, those who profit aren’t always the brave.The sheer scale of that war effort is almost unimaginable when we live in a time of extended storage and fast mail. But back then, backpacks and cloth stacks were smaller. Getting precious resources gathered, sorted, and sent took many hours. And it took several weeks to source bandages, food, and equipment—resources that were in high demand and would soon dwindle.The Importance of RemembranceThere are parallels with current events that are impossible to ignore: once more, we Azerothians stand united against the Burning Legion as they wreak havoc across the Broken Isles. We attempt to put aside a complex, bitter history in order defeat a common enemy. We eye each other suspiciously, even as we fight side by side.We would do well, in these dark times, to remember the courage and spirit of those who were there at the Gates of Ahn’Qiraj. We must have long memories if we’re to make quick work of the demon forces we now face.From January 21–23 we ask that you join us as we remember the fallen and celebrate the victory. All of Azeroth are invited to a special holiday, ‘Call of the Scarab,’ where we will gather to perform acts of remembrance and share our factions’ pride.Were you there? Share your memories with us in the comments below.

Comments

Comment by Jamow

Woo Hoo ! I'm wondering if I'll be able to ride my Scarab mount. The red one....you know?...Because it is red!

Comment by p00pyjoel

on 2017-01-20T18:21:57-06:00

So.. do the old world bosses drop loot? Could it be possible that their loot tables say level 60, but they were secretly changed to scale up?

Comment by BosephHeyden

on 2017-01-20T18:30:33-06:00

So is there an actual reward for doing this or is it just nostalgia? A flag flying over a zone that people barely visit isn't really all that appealing.

Comment by Crackbone333

on 2017-01-20T18:43:05-06:00

W8, so there is no reward for doing all of this? You just get to fly a flag in a zone no one ever goes to?

Comment by sniperorc

on 2017-01-20T18:44:24-06:00

Is it me, or is a lot of this just the continuous PvP grind in Silithus in Vanilla even after the Scarab Gate was opened? Because most of the so-called WQs look suspiciously like the various faction objectives you could do for Cenarion Circle and Brood of Nozdormu rep.

Comment by KneezMz

on 2017-01-20T19:05:04-06:00

Will raid quests be converted to level 110?

Comment by sakera

on 2017-01-20T19:12:52-06:00

So is there an actual reward for doing this or is it just nostalgia? A flag flying over a zone that people barely visit isn't really all that appealing.

W8, so there is no reward for doing all of this? You just get to fly a flag in a zone no one ever goes to?

Blizzard stated, when they announced the new micro-holidays, that they would provide no rewards.

No achievements or power rewards, no mount or pet but it's something fun and different to do.

These events are meant to be activities players can participate in for fun, rather than for game-changing rewards. Each one is meant to make the world feel more alive without making players feel like they need to participate for big rewards—while still providing some more variety and fun.

Comment by huldu

on 2017-01-20T21:21:41-06:00

You literally get nothing for doing this. It just blows my mind that they wasted resources on creating these "mini" events. Why even take part of them? It really isn't fun at all. The whole point with playing the game is having fun - true - but it's just as much as getting something out of it in the game itself, ie gear, achievements, mounts, pets and what not. I know it's just me, you won't see me wasting time doing them that's for sure.

Comment by Xella

on 2017-01-20T22:45:44-06:00

Is Silithus limited to your server for the duration of the event, or are multiple servers going to be competing not only with their opposite number on their own realms but also any realms connected to them via CRZ?

I can see a lot of realms having a wildly varying experience if CRZ is on or off, my own included.

Comment by GreySage

on 2017-01-21T00:45:10-06:00

I'd welcome CRZ for once. I'd rather take a gamble with imbalance than go alone against the 2000 idiot horde wannabe-gankers that pollute my server.

Comment by Dblbaconator

on 2017-01-21T03:42:00-06:00

You literally get nothing for doing this. It just blows my mind that they wasted resources on creating these "mini" events. Why even take part of them? It really isn't fun at all. The whole point with playing the game is having fun - true - but it's just as much as getting something out of it in the game itself, ie gear, achievements, mounts, pets and what not. I know it's just me, you won't see me wasting time doing them that's for sure.

The whole point of the micro holidays is exactly that, just to have a bit of fun and do something different once in a while. My assumption as to why the devs decided not to include permanent rewards was so that, if you miss the short window when they're up, you won't miss out on collectibles. Real life can easily get in the way of video games, and it would suck to miss a cool pet you want just because you have to work one particular day. Other holidays are up for a longer duration, so you have plenty of time to grind out rewards as they're added.

It's also arguable that they "wasted resources" for these. Most probably took little time to implement, and I would laugh if anyone tried to claim that this cost us a raid tier or something like that. I hope that there are more micro holidays celebrating various other memorable days in WoW. A game that's been going for over twelve years has a lot to commemorate.

Maybe you don't find it fun, but I'm sure there will be plenty who will. And since that's the whole point, that's really all that matters.

Comment by LineArk

on 2017-01-21T03:44:43-06:00

For anyone with the doubt (like i had), this event is not worth of experience in order to level up faster.

The world quest has a cooldown of aprox 24 hrs, so you cant farm them. You could farm the event if it had the cooldown of 1 hour(30 min would be ideal) each one of the WQs.

In other words you better keep using the dungeon experience to level up faster(Dont think blizzard is going to do a hotfix on a weekend).

Comment by Djahn

on 2017-01-21T04:22:35-06:00

In the world quest section, you have the C'thun and Ossirian quests cross linked to each other

Comment by VladDraco

on 2017-01-21T05:41:23-06:00

I wish there was, there should at least be an achiev or something.

Comment by VladDraco

on 2017-01-21T06:24:35-06:00

I dont think it would have hurt anyone to at least have some achievements tied to these

Comment by Thious

on 2017-01-21T07:30:07-06:00

I feel as though this video was a little inaccurate, you forgot to add the part in there that after each time you land expect to be jumped on by at least 10-20 members of an opposing faction then subsequently killed and camped as you try to rez over and over again.

You can down vote this, but I feel like Blizzard dropped the ball with keeping Cross Realm enabled in these mini holiday event zones. It was the same issue with the Diablo event, you would port into the farm and realize you were surrounded by about 40 people of the opposite faction and then you die missing your chance to even get a Cow King kill. Yes I am on a PVP server and I love PVP and 1v1,1v2,1v3 hell even 1v5 doesn't make me upset. But getting jumped on by entire raid group sizes is pretty out of hand when I am trying to relive some memories from an event that is supposed to be fun.

I don't know how the merging works in these older zones, but it is very clearly unbalanced when it comes to the ally:horde ratio on some server clusters.

Comment by swotam

on 2017-01-21T10:40:57-06:00

Wow, such a horrible event. I did this stuff back in Vanilla and it wasn't all that "fun" then, so to basically dredge up the old quests and turn Silithus into a PVP zone makes it a "nope" activity for me. I went to the zone to see what was up, saw a bunch of annoying quests I did 8+ years ago resurface, got ganked, left the zone.

Blizz has to give you some reason for doing this, even if it's just a pet or or some thing that might appeal to players. Who gives a crap about planting a flag beside some decade old artifact that literally nobody ever looks at.

Not wanting to sound bitter (I know, I do) but if this is the sort of thing Blizz has people working on maybe they don't have enough actual work to do.

Comment by Dalart

on 2017-01-21T11:01:21-06:00

Without rewards, this event is mainly for gankers and pvpers. Waste of time and resources.

Comment by JasperKazai

on 2017-01-21T14:47:24-06:00

Shame there isn't a small toy or pet for this, or even a "hey you were here" achievement tied to it. I'll still check it out, but probably not for more than a few minutes because it's kind of pointless.

Comment by cocoawolf

on 2017-01-21T14:59:29-06:00

All of this design potential and it goes into little event items, battle pets, and npc's instead of our hero characters much needed update (particularly worgen, but goblin model as well).

Aside from that, it's good to see tier 6 brought back to life, it was in my opinion the most amazing altogether!